Pollinators serve critical roles for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, and have an estimated annual value of over $150 billion for global agriculture. Mounting evidence from agricultural systems reveals that pollinators are declining in many regions of the world, and with a lack of information on whether pollinator communities in natural systems are following similar trends, identifying factors which support pollinator visitation and services are important for ameliorating the effects of the current global pollinator crisis. We investigated how fire affects resource structure and how that variation influences floral pollinator communities by comparing burn versus control treatments in a southeastern USA old-field system. We hypothesized and found a positive relationship between fire and plant density of a native forb, Verbesina alternifolia, as well as a significant difference in floral visitation of V. alternifolia between burn and control treatments. V. alternifolia density was 44% greater and floral visitation was 54% greater in burned treatments relative to control sites. When the density of V. alternifolia was experimentally reduced in the burn sites to equivalent densities observed in control sites, floral visitation in burned sites declined to rates found in control sites. Our results indicate that plant density is a proximal mechanism by which an imposed fire regime can indirectly impact floral visitation, suggesting its usefulness as a tool for management of pollination services. Although concerns surround the negative impacts of management, indirect positive effects may provide an important direction to explore for managing future ecological and conservation issues. Studies examining the interaction among resource concentration, plant apparency, and how fire affects the evolutionary consequences of altered patterns of floral visitation are overdue.
Summary 1.Predicting the response of communities and ecosystems to range shifts as a consequence of global climate change is a critical challenge confronting modern evolutionary ecologists. 2. Indirect genetic effects (IGEs) occur when the expression of genes in a conspecific neighbouring species affects the phenotype of a focal species, and the same concept applies for interspecific indirect genetic effects (IIGEs) except that the neighbouring species is then required to be heterospecific. 3. Theory and empirical data indicate that indirect genetic effects and interspecific indirect genetic effects have fundamental roles in understanding the consequences of genotypic diversity, evolutionary feedbacks, the co-evolutionary process and coadaptation and are a primary mechanism for the broad ecological and evolutionary dynamics that are likely to be a consequence of climate change. 4. When indirect genetic effects and interspecific indirect genetic effects occur along environmental gradients, both positive and negative feedbacks can evolve, resulting in regions of strong local adaptation and competition as well as regions of complementarity and facilitation. Such evolutionary dynamics have direct consequences for how individuals interact and evolve in mixture and drive the services ecosystems provide. 5. Integrating indirect genetic effects and interspecific indirect genetic effects, feedbacks and diversity effects along environmental gradients represents a major conceptual, theoretical and empirical frontier that must be considered to understand the whole-system consequences of climate change on biodiversity and the services ecosystems provide.
Species ranges have been shifting since the Pleistocene, whereby fragmentation, isolation, and the subsequent reduction in gene flow have resulted in local adaptation of novel genotypes and the repeated evolution of endemic species. While there is a wide body of literature focused on understanding endemic species, very few studies empirically test whether or not the evolution of endemics results in unique function or ecological differences relative to their widespread congeners; in particular while controlling for environmental variation. Using a common garden composed of 15 Eucalyptus species within the subgenus Symphyomyrtus (9 endemic to Tasmania, 6 non-endemic), here we hypothesize and show that endemic species are functionally and ecologically different from non-endemics. Compared to non-endemics, endemic Eucalyptus species have a unique suite of functional plant traits that have extended effects on herbivores. We found that while endemics occupy many diverse habitats, they share similar functional traits potentially resulting in an endemic syndrome of traits. This study provides one of the first empirical datasets analyzing the functional differences between endemics and non-endemics in a common garden setting, and establishes a foundation for additional studies of endemic/non-endemic dynamics that will be essential for understanding global biodiversity in the midst of rapid species extinctions and range shifts as a consequence of global change.
1 0 * Corresponding author (email: courtney.gorman@uni-konstanz.de, ORCID ID: 1 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7310-8803) 1 2 3 1 visitation) in maintaining reproductive isolation between newly arisen selfing populations and 3 2 their outcrossing ancestors? To test whether changes in phenology and pollinator visitation 3 3 isolate selfing populations of Arabidopsis lyrata from outcrossing populations, we conducted a 3 4 common garden experiment with plants from selfing and outcrossing populations as well as their 3 5 F1 hybrids. Specifically, we asked whether there was isolation between outcrossing and selfing 3 6 plants and their F1 hybrids through differences in 1) the timing or intensity of flowering; and/or 3 72) pollinator visitation. We found that phenology largely overlapped between plants from 3 8 outcrossing and selfing populations. There were also no differences in pollinator preference 3 9 related to mating system. Additionally, pollinators preferred to visit flowers on the same plant 4 0 rather than exploring nearby plants, creating a large opportunity for self-fertilization. Overall, 4 1 this suggests that prezygotic pre-pollination mechanisms do not strongly reproductively isolate 4 2 plants from selfing and outcrossing populations of Arabidopsis lyrata. 4 3 4 4
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